OZ And The Argument To Reboot
L. Frank Baum‘s classic, The Wizard of OZ is one of the most remade, and rethought properties around. You’ll often hear genre fans go bonkers when they learn that their favorite TV show, or movie is being remade. Its true, Hollywood often screws up… yet at the same time, sometimes while it tinkers about with existing material it does make new classics, the Judy Garland version of The Wonderful Wizard of OZ is proof of this, itself a new version of silent movies based on OZ that preceded it.
And they’re still redoing OZ, on both screen, and in print. The James Franco, Disney version OZ: The Great, and Powerful as seen in the trailer below looks pretty good. There’s also The Wicked Years Series by Gregory Maguire, and these new takes in no way diminish the source material. They in my view, serve to enhance it.
Not only did L. Frank Baum give the world a classic, but he opened the doors for other artists to jump off from his vision, be it: Tin Man on Syfy, or a stage show with Jewel Kilcher as Dorothy Gale, OZ has become its own canvas for artists of all stripes to paint upon.
This is where I work into the blog post that I intend my own take on OZ. Luckily the existing canon is filled with many interesting female characters. I can tell you my version is going to lean toward a science fiction version of OZ with a lot of steampunk thrown in. Other than that I need to think it out a bit more.
Related articles
- FREE Audiobook – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Narrated by Anne Hathaway) (randomizeme.net)
- Here’s the First Trailer for Sam Raimi’s Wizard of Oz Prequel, Oz: The Great and Powerful [Video] (gawker.com)
- ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’ Trailer: First Look at James Franco as Iconic Character (VIDEO) (celebuzz.com)
- First Look: James Franco as the Wizard of Oz in Sam Raimi’s Prequel [First Look] (gawker.com)
- First Look: ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ Prequel Releases Its First Movie Poster (pinkisthenewblog.com)
- OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Shows Off First Footage Featuring James Franco and Mila Kunis (collider.com)
- James Franco Plays the Young Wizard of Oz in the New Trailer for ‘Oz, the Great and Powerful’: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
- Take a peek over the rainbow in ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ poster – EXCLUSIVE (insidemovies.ew.com)
- The Reading List: Everything Oz… (thelicentiate.com)
- The Secret Oz (Full Version) (undergrounddocumentaries.com)
Some works seem to lend themselves to reworking and to stimulate creativity – Sherlock Holmes is one I can think of. I think it is part of the greatness of the original creation.
I think it looks pretty good with a new take, but that’s only the trailer. We’ll have to see when the movie comes out. My complaint is, all these movie companies are making remakes of previously seen movies, when talent like yours is out there to be discovered. Uh-duh, let’s try something new for a change.